Brewer, aged 68, completed his mission this week when standing at Manea station. The station is tiny, and located in the county of Cambridgeshire. It is a small station, consisting of two platforms. The station is open Mondays to Saturdays and there is one train stopping every two hours during the daytime, served by Abellio Greater Anglia.
David Brewer was there, according to the Sunday Post, when the 15:52 from Norwich to Liverpool Lime Street passed through on May 9, 2016. One photograph later and the mission was complete.
Interviewed by the BBC, Brewer explained that some stations — like those located in big cities — were easy to photograph, whereas others were more difficult. Probably the hardest to reach was Redcar British Steel. This station is only used by employees of a steel works as there are just two services per day, running in opposite directions. For this, Brewer, who reached the station by bus, had to seek special permission.
The least-used station in Britain is apparently the one that serves Teesside Airport. Here there are just two trains a week, both on Sundays, and the typical number of passengers is just eight.
Brewer explains more about his hobby in this video below:
The project took David Brewer eight years to complete. He started the process when he retired, fittingly from the railways aged 60. His record year was 2008 when he photographed 487 stations. Asked what his wife Shirley thought of his adventures, Brewer told the BBC: “I have asked her this. She’s quite happy for me to be out of the house. She’s not really interested in railways herself.”
This isn’t the end of Brewer’s adventures. He is currently photographing ever station on the London Underground.
